Castaway Planet (4) (Boundary)

I loved the first three Boundary books and would reread them in a heartbeat. CASTAWAY PLANET may be set in the same universe as the first three offerings, but it has little to do with the original characters or story line. Imagine an adventure where the parents are on an extended trip and their transportation breaks down. Their young children and "pet" are forced to rough it until help comes. The children display their Girl Scout skills and bravery. That's it for a plot and excitement. Now translate that to a pair of scientist parents, their overly bright children of youth to adolescent age, and an immature and genetically modified Bemmie child. It's probably an acceptable intro book for readers under 15 years old but has little to appeal for adults. The dialogue and vocabulary are shallow. Much of the action is parental control of independent kids. At least in LOST IN SPACE, they had a functioning space ship (with no compass) to change planets each week and Dr. Smith to serve as the evil foil to all the do-good characters.

This story was both an adventure and a trip down memory lane for me. I remember the adventures I had growing up on a sailboat in Hawaii, with a marine biology professor for a father, and all the things I learned, and the way I learned them, with fondness. This book brought all of that back to the surface. I also remember reading The Swiss Family Robinson as a child, and thinking "that is easy, that is hard, that is crazy, I have done that" over and over as I read through it. I did a lot of that while reading this book as well, although a lot less of 'that is easy' came to mind.
The characters are well conceived and consistent. Each one at times being adorable or annoying, just like people.
It really helps to have read the first trilogy before this, but isn't required. I highly recommend this book!

This is a kids book. It continues the series, and did well enough that I enjoyed reading it AFTER reading both the previous books again. However, the writing style and content is what I used to see when reading books in the 6th grade. Not a bad story, just no 'adult' or even "P13" content. No "blood and guts", no sex (of any kind, in any way - not even a kiss!), and the "danger" is about as washed out as the amount of people you actually see killed or hurt in a "Transformers" movie (that is, "0"). Some suspense, a little "action", but mostly a hygienic accounting of some travel between planets, with some shortcuts taken on "speed of light" messaging.

Spoiler Alert! Wait, I got to page 105 and skipped to the end, yes it goes straight to a sequel! The first three books on this story arc were very good books, recommend them all. This one was unexpected, and it let me down on the story line. Can it survive, will have to wait for the next one to find out!

One of the best SF takes on Swiss Family Robinson I've read and, I'd guess, of interest both to those adult and younger.

A good Boundary follow-on.

This was a book to complete one of my husband's collections--and it was perfect!

Excellent book series very entertaining and full of surprises.

Thoroughly enjoyable read and I hope it's the start of a series. Lots of arcane scientific and pre industrial knowledge of how things are made from raw materials and plenty of alien monsters for the antagonists to fight. A family stranded on an uncharted planet struggle to survive against all odds.

Wonderful book characters are well developed and is a great read.